Digital Heaven

The latest battle cry of the technology business: Whatever can be digitized will be digitized. No wonder so many businesspeople have rushed out to buy digital cameras, digital video cameras, and digital audio recorders. These tools usually exist on a stand-alone basis — which, in terms of functionality, is far from ideal. Who wants to carry one of each in his or her briefcase?

Hitachi's M2 multimedia recorder bundles all three digital tools into a single unit that is the size of most digital cameras and that weighs barely more than a pound. The M2 can capture up to 3,000 JPEG still images, 27 minutes of MPEG-1 video, 4 hours of digital audio recordings — or any combination thereof. Users can pop the M2's 260-MB hard drive out of the device and into their desktop or laptop computer. And the recorder comes with input and output cables that plug directly into a TV or a VCR.

The M2 sells for $1,499. For more information, call Hitachi America Ltd. (800-448-2244) or visit the Web (www.hitachi.com).

A version of this article appeared in the January 1999 issue of Fast Company magazine.